Perception Of Reality:

I recently enjoyed a conversation with my nephew David.

Broad, it was, on the nature of reality,

Of the uncertainty that surrounds it,

And us, our very existence,

And ‘je pense donc je suis /

Cogito ergo sum’,

Being pretty much all we could

Be certain of, though David’s certainty

Was a conditional thing.

Anyway, this got me thinking.

Reality, it seems to me,

If looked at long term,

Is something we will

Certainly never understand

If we define reality as

‘What really is’.

What we refer to as reality

Is that which we’ve agreed,

Or our ancestors agreed for us,

With the majority of other people,

And don’t constantly row about.

This can, of course, be localised.

Witness some of the folk

In the boonies in the US

Compared to people in

Cosmopolitan London

Or the chic of Paris.

(Or Trump v President Macron)

Let us agree, then, that

It is a set of concepts and principles

Which are pretty loose and flexible

But allow us to communicate

(Quite often fairly superficially)

And cooperate and coexist as a species …

Most of the time.

Generally speaking we’re pretty much in agreement

About what a chair or a table is,

And that they are solid, not arguing overly

From a philosophical or scientific

Point of view about the properties of

Solids, liquids, gases and so forth,

On a day to day basis, which,

Let’s face it, would be tedious.

These relatively simple agreed things

Are generally covered by

Concrete common nouns.

When it come to abstract issues,

Covered by abstract nouns, however,

Such as the nature of hope, faith, love,

Hate, honour, loyalty, duty, grace and

That old bête noire, morality …

Ah, then it gets more exciting!

We explored, too, the possibility of predestination,

A concept I abhor as the ultimate cop out for taking

No responsibility for ones life.

“It was meant to be.”  Bullshit!

On we moved to the programming

We receive through our genes, and

The environment we grow in,

Just as the flowers, grasses,

Lichens, mighty oaks,

And little or larger beasties do,

To a lesser or greater degree.

That’s where predestination gets its fatal blow,

I believe.  Individuals, certainly in beasties,

Put together all that programming

In different ways, and so we have ‘will’,

And depending on the brain size

Of the beasties, and one or two other factors,

The greater the freedom

Of ‘will’ and individuality we develop,

The less we follow our instincts.

And so we come back, then, to reality,

That most individual of constructs,

With a cooperative twist,

Depending, as it does,

On at least some societal agreement.

Now, please bare with me.

I was driving back from the lake one day

And swerved a little to avoid a snail,

Smack, bang in the middle of the road.

Perhaps I should have stopped

And put it out of harm’s way,

But I didn’t.  What I did do

Was imagine, no, let’s say,

Tried to imagine, what such

An action would do to that snail’s ‘reality’?

I think, nothing, as flying is not within

The snail’s conceptual framework.

Its reality does not allow for it.

It would, in essence, be a non-event,

Though I’ll concede it might

Crap itself.  I’m sure I would

In those circumstances!

On that thought, the snail’s reality

Is hugely limited by the depth

And breadth of its experience,

Due, predominantly, to the size of his brain.

(The Magic Roundabout’s Brian,

He who Dougal unfairly referred to as

‘A sloppy mollusc’, did not, in fact exist.)

I saw then a woodpecker flit

Between two trees.  His reality would perhaps

Be more 3D than mine, I don’t know,

But for reasons posited above, that reality, too,

Is limited, though more sophisticated also

Because it can communicate,

And cry, ‘Danger’, or ‘Fancy a shag?’

To others of his species.  That, in itself

Complicates reality, that sharing of concepts,

Or shall we say, the attempts to do so.

His reality, however, as with the snail’s,

Is partially guided by that which we loosely

Refer to as instinct, defined for this discussion

As ‘an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour

In animals in response to certain stimuli.’ 

For our purposes here I would flag the word

‘Animals’, in that semantically, though precisely

It includes humans, we tend to think of it as not

Doing so – an odd, human conceit.  Here it does.

Now, I don’t know where woodpeckers choose

To spend winter, but many birds have such

A complex instinct it enables them,

With no reference to maps or Satnav,

To travel the most extraordinary distances

Accurately, as do salmon, of course,

Though generally speaking, not taking to the air,

Apart from their endeavours to leap up weirs and so on.

Instinct is tricky, ill-defined and can be suicidal. 

We may return to it later. 

The pair of Magpies, too, which I saw fluttering

Like Chinese kites on a windy day, have a firm grip

On what they perceive to be reality.  I saw then,

However, a deer.  Its reality and instincts would be

Different from the Magpies, probably more complex.

The reality of the deer is not concrete and, as with

Every other living thing, it is hugely influenced

By its environmental and familial restrictions and,

Critically, its ability to learn, adapt and,

Here I tread most carefully,

Rise up above its instincts,

Just as hedgehogs do who run

Across the road when seeing lights

Instead of curling into a ball.

Rabbits, too, with that appalling scourge,

Myxomatosis, are more likely to survive

When they forsake living in burrows

And live in hedges and such like.

A bear’s reality, born in a zoo to parents who were

Born in the zoo, would be hugely at variance to

That of a wild bear.  Some of the instincts would

Be the same but, critically, some would differ.

It seems to me that the more sophisticated

The creature’s brain,

The more complex its ability to be aware and adapt

To its environment, to semi-control it in some cases.

It appears also, that the more complex its communication,

Conceptualisation and resultant reality,

The less it appears to be in touch with its instincts.

One of the things humanity has learned about reality

Is that we know very little about it,

Both as individuals and as a collective species.

(Unless you’re a JW, flat-earther, Trump or Brexiteer,

Who all think they’ve got everything totally sussed)

As we continue to thrive, the reality is

That we know we know less and less

About real reality,

Whatever that may be.

The reality of the snail,

For the snail, is pretty straightforward,

For an amoeba, even more so.

Reality becomes more complex and shaky

The more we move up the species ladder.

Assuming we accept that the reality of humans,

(Other than for the aforementioned)

Is more complex, and at the same time much shakier

Than it is for just about any other creature …

The old saw, ‘the more you know, the less you know’ ...

We thus live with greater uncertainty

And change, on a daily basis;

And as society advances, reality keeps changing,

And our world view has to change with it,

Faster and faster,

Yet still we need to maintain

That loose general agreement

As to what reality is, which

Becomes more complicated when

It’s about, let’s say, String Theory,

Or what a Freedom Fighter is

As opposed to a Terrorist,

Than when we agree

About what a table is.

One consequence of this is that with the total sum

Of human knowledge rising exponentially,

It is quite possible that if we were to be dropped

Into the world of our great grandchildren,

Much of reality would be so alien to us,

Like the snail’s experience flying,

It would be full of non-events,

Events our minds could not give meaning to.

Now, this takes us on quite straightforwardly

To Jack Russells.  Everybody who has had contact

With a Jack Russell knows that all is not as simple

As it appears.  No indeed!  A Jack Russell is

The physical manifestation of a cross dimensional

Super intelligent being and guardian of all sorts of stuff

Which is too complex for us to even begin to understand.

The actual JR manifestation represents just

One 100^th of their being; it is that part which

Allows some fun, irresponsibility and relaxation

Into their otherwise incredibly serious and responsible

Lives.  (This, incidentally, is why JRs think they’re so large.)

Now, to recap, as we have learned by looking at

The increasing level of uncertainty with regard to reality,

It is very much associated with progressively more

Sophisticated intelligence, conceptualisation,

Communication and the ability to learn and adapt

Behaviours relative to what has been learned,

And rise up above instinct, which deals in ‘certainties’.

Right. Now what does this logically suggest concerning

The cross dimensional super intelligences

And their grasp of reality?

Well I’ll tell you what it suggests. 

It suggests that their grip on reality

Is even more tenuous than ours.

Again, I give you the Jack Russell.

Enough said.

And the infinitely superior, cross dimensional

And temporal super, fabulous intelligences which

Stand the moon and stars above them; what

Is their grasp of reality going to be like?

Well, I think we can fairly safely surmise

That it isn’t going to be very good at all.

So, if you really want to know, this whole reality

Thing is arse about face; the amoeba has the greatest

Grip, and those super-dupper, hyper, cross-dimensional

Cross temporal etc intelligences – shit, let’s just call them Gods –

Who organise and oversee the working of

The whole kit and caboodle

Are truly out for lunch, have totally lost their grip

And are absolutely off their trolleys, reality-wise.

The truth is, then, that the universe is being run by lunatics,

All of which explains, for instance, why Donald Trump is

President of the USA, the UK is going to Brexit,

The stupid think they know everything,

The wise think they know nothing,

And all the other weird shit that makes no sense.

It’s comforting to know there’s a reason,

Don’t you think?

No, nor do I.